The first stone city walls were built in 1032. Around this time trade with Norway, England and the northern Netherlands began to grow, increasing the importance of the city.

Germania, in the early 2nd century (Harper and Brothers, 1849)

In 1186 the Bremian Prince-ArchbishopHartwig of Uthlede and his bailiff in Bremen confirmed - without generally waiving the prince-archiepiscopal overlordship over the city - the Gelnhausen Privilege, by which Frederick I Barbarossa granted the city considerable privileges. The city was recognised as a political entity of its own law. Property within the municipal boundaries could not be subjected to feudal overlordship, this was true also for serfs acquiring property, if they managed to live in the city for a year and a day, after which they were to be regarded as free persons. Property was to be freely inherited without feudal claims to reversion. This privilege laid the foundation for Bremen's later status of imperial immediacy (Free Imperial City).

In fact, however, Bremen did not have complete independence from the Prince-Archbishops, in that there was no freedom of religion, and burghers were still forced to pay taxes to the Prince-Archbishops. Bremen played a double role, it participated in the Diets of the neighboured Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen as part of the Bremian Estates and paid its share in the taxes, at least when it had consented to the levying before. Since the city was the major taxpayer, its consent was mostly searched for. Like this the city wielded fiscal and political power within the Prince-Archbishopric, while the city would rather not allow the Prince-Archbishopric to rule in the city against its consent. In 1260 Bremen joined the Hanseatic League.

View from the Bremen Cathedral in the direction of the Stephani-Bridge

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De facto independence and becoming a territorial power

In 1350 the number of inhabitants reached 20,000. Around then the Hansekogge (cog ship) became a speciality of Bremen.

In 1362 representatives of Bremen rendered homage to Albert II, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen in Langwedel. In return Albert confirmed the city's privileges and brokered a peace between the city and Count Gerard III of Hoya, who since 1358 held burghers of Bremen in captivity. The city had to bail them out. In 1365 an extra tax, levied to finance the ransom, incited uproar of burghers and handcrafters, bloodily suppressed by the city council.

In 1366 Albert II tried to take advantage from the dispute between Bremen's council and the guilds, whose members expelled some city councillors from the city. When these councillors appealed to Albert II for help, many handcrafters and burghers regarded this treason against the city. Appealing at princes would only provoke them to abolish city autonomy.

The fortified city held its own guards, not allowing prince-archiepiscopal soldiers to enter it. The city reserved an extra very narrow gate, the so-called Bishop's Needle (Latin: Acus episcopi, first mentioned in 1274), for all clergy including the Prince-Archbishop. The narrowness of the gate made it technically impossible to come accompanied by knights.

Nevertheless, in the night of May 29, 1366 Albert's troops invaded the city helped by some burghers. After this the city had to render him homage again, the Bremen Roland, symbol of the city's autonomy, was demolished and a new city council was appointed. In return the new council granted Albert a credit amounting to the enormous sum of 20,000 Bremian Marks.

But city councillors of the prior council, who had fled to the County of Oldenburg gained support of the Counts and recaptured the city on June 27, 1366. The members of the intermittent council were regarded traitors and beheaded and the city de facto regained its autonomy. Thereupon, the city of Bremen, since long rather holding an autonomous status, acted almost in complete independence from the Prince-Archbishop. Albert failed to subject the city of Bremen a second time, since he was always short in money and without support by his family, the Welfs, who fought the War on Luneburgian Succession (1370–1388).

By the end of the 1360s Bremen granted credits to Albert II, to finance his spendthrift lifestyle, and gained in return the fortress in Vörde and the dues levied in the pertaining bailiwick as a pawn for the credits. In 1369 Bremen again lent to Albert II against the collateral of his mint and his privilege of coinage, from then on run by the city council. In 1377 Bremen bought - from Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg - many of the prince-archiepiscopal castles, which Albert had pledged as security for a credit to Frederick's predecessor, thus Bremen gained a powerful position in the Prince-Archbishopric, pushing its actual ruler aside.

Roman Catholic Church was condemned as a symbol of the abuses of a long Catholic past by most local burghers. In 1547 the chapter, meanwhile prevailingly Lutheran, appointed the Dutch Albert Rizaeus, called Hardenberg, as the first Cathedral pastor of Protestant affiliation. Rizaeus turned out to be a partisan of the rather Zwinglian understanding of the Lord's Supper, which was rejected by the then Lutheran majority of burghers, city council, and chapter. So in 1561 - after tremendous quarrels - Rizaeus was dismissed and banned from the city and the cathedral shut again its doors.

However, as a consequence of that controversy the majority of Bremen's burghers and city council adopted Calvinism by the 1590s, while the chapter, being simultaneously the body of secular government in the neighbouring Prince-Archbishopric, clung to Lutheranism. This antagonism between a Calvinistic majority and a Lutheran minority, though of a powerful position in its immunity district (mediatised as part of the city in 1803), remained determinant until in 1873 the Calvinist and Lutheran congregations in Bremen reconciled and founded a united administrative umbrella, the still existing Bremian Evangelical Church, comprising the bulk of Bremen's burghers.

At the beginning of the 17th c. Bremen continued to play its double role, wielding fiscal and political power within the Prince-Archbishopric, but not allowing Prince-Archbishopric to rule in the city against its consent.

Thirty Years War

Flag of Bremen

Soon after the beginning of the Thirty Years' War Bremen declared its neutrality, as did most of the territories in the Lower Saxon Circle. John Frederick, Lutheran Administrator of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, tried desperately to keep his Prince-Archbishopric out of the war, being in complete agreement with the Estates and the city of Bremen. When in 1623 the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, fighting in the Eighty Years' War for its independence against Habsburg's Spanish and imperial forces, requested its Calvinist co-religionist Bremen to join, the city refused, but started to reinforce its fortifications.

In 1627 Christian IV withdrew from the Prince-Archbishopric, in order to fight Wallenstein's invasion of his Duchy of Holstein. Tilly then invaded the Prince-Archbishopric and captured its southern parts. Bremen shut its city gates and entrenched behind its improved fortifications. In 1628 Tilly turned to the city, and Bremen paid him a ransom of 10,000 rixdollars in order to spare its siege. The city remained unoccupied.

The Leaguist takeover enabled Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, to implement the Edict of Restitution, decreed March 6, 1629, within the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen including the city of Bremen. In September 1629 Francis William, Count of Wartenberg, appointed by Ferdinand II as chairman of the imperial restitution commission for the Lower Saxon Circle, carrying out the provisions of the Edict of Restitution, ordered the Bremian Chapter, seated in Bremen, to render an account of all the capitular and prince-archiepiscopal estates (not to be confused with the Estates). The Chapter refused, arguing first that the order was not authenticised and later that due to disputes with Bremen's city council, they couldn't freely travel to render an account, let alone do the necessary research on the estates. The anti-Catholic attitudes of Bremen's burghers and council would make it completely impossible to prepare the restitution of estates from the Lutheran Chapter to the Roman Catholic Church. Even Lutheran capitulars were uneasy in Calvinistic Bremen.

Bremen's city council ordered that the capitular and prince-archiepiscopal estates within the boundaries of the unoccupied city weren't to be restituted to the Roman Catholic Church. The council argued, that the city had long been Protestant, but the restitution commission replied that the city was de jure a part of the Prince-Archbishopric, so Protestantism had illegitimately alienated Catholic-owned estates. The city council answered under these circumstances it would rather separate from the Holy Roman Empire and join the quasi-independent Republic of the Seven Netherlands.[1] The city was neither to be conquered nor to be successfully beleaguered due to its new fortifications and its access to the North Sea.

In October 1631 an army, newly recruited by John Frederick, started to reconquer the Prince-Archbishopric - helped by forces from Sweden and the city of Bremen. John Frederick was back in his office, only to realise the supremacy of Sweden, insisting on its supreme command until the end of the war. With the impending enfeoffment of the military Great Power of Sweden with the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, as under negotiation for the Treaty of Westphalia, the city of Bremen feared to fall as well under Swedish rule. Therefore the city beseeched an imperial confirmation of its status of imperial immediacy from 1186 (Gelnhausen Privilege). In 1646 Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, granted the requested confirmation (Diploma of Linz) to the Free Imperial City.

Defence against Swedish mediatisation attempts

Nevertheless, Sweden, represented by its imperial fief Bremen-Verden, which comprised the secularised prince-bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, did not accept the imperial immediacy of the city of Bremen. Swedish Bremen-Verden tried to remediatise the Free Imperial City of Bremen. To this aim Swedish Bremen-Verden waged war on Bremen twice. In 1381 the city of Bremen had captured de facto rule in an area around Bederkesa and westwards thereof up to the lower Weser stream near Bremerlehe (a part of today's Bremerhaven). Early in 1653 Bremen-Verden's Swedish troops captured Bremerlehe by violence. In February 1654 the city of Bremen achieved, that Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, granted it a seat and the vote in the Holy Roman Empire'sDiet, thus accepting the city's status as Free Imperial City of Bremen.

Ferdinand III ordered his vassal Christina of Sweden, Duchess regnant of Bremen-Verden to compensate the city of Bremen for the damages caused and to restitute Bremerlehe. When in March 1654 the city of Bremen started to recruit soldiers in the area of Bederkesa, in order to prepare for further arbitrary acts, Swedish Bremen-Verden enacted the First Bremian War (March to July 1654), arguing to act in self-defence. The Free Imperial City of Bremen had meanwhile urged Ferdinand III for support, who in July 1654 ordered his vassal Charles X Gustav of Sweden, Christina's successor as Duke of Bremen-Verden, to cease the conflict, which resulted in the Recess of Stade (November 1654). This treaty left the main issue, accepting the city of Bremen's imperial immediacy, unresolved. But the city agreed to pay tribute and levy taxes in favour of Swedish Bremen-Verden and to cede its possessions around Bederkesa and Bremerlehe, therefore later called Lehe.

Swedes under Carl Gustaf Wrangel beleaguered the city of Bremen. The siege brought Brandenburg-Prussia, Brunswick and Lunenburg-Celle, Denmark, Leopold I and the Netherlands to the scene, all in favour of the city, with Brandenburgian, Cellean, Danish and Dutch troops at Bremen-Verden's borders ready to invade. So on 15 November 1666 Sweden had to sign the Treaty of Habenhausen, obliging it to destroy the fortresses built close to Bremen and banning Bremen from sending its representative to the Diet of the Lower Saxon Circle. From then on no further Swedish attempts to capture the city sprang out.

19th century

In 1811 Napoleon invaded Bremen and integrated it as the capital of the Département de Bouches-du-Weser (Department of the Mouths of the Weser) in the French State. In 1813 the French - on their retreat - withdrew from Bremen. Johann Smidt, Bremen's representative at the Congress of Vienna, successfully achieved that Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck were not mediatised and incorporated into neighbouring monarchies, but became sovereign republics.

The first German steamship was manufactured in 1817 at the yard of Johann Lange.

In 1827 Bremen, under Johann Smidt, its Burgomaster at that time, purchased land from the Kingdom of Hanover, to establish the city of Bremerhaven (Port of Bremen) as an outpost of Bremen because of the increased silt buildup in the Weser river.

In 1947 Nordmende was founded, a manufacturer of entertainment electronics. In 1958 OHB-System was founded, a manufacturer of medium-sized spaceflight satellites.

Politics

The Stadtbürgerschaft (municipal assembly) is made up of 68 of the 83 legislators of the state legislature, the Bremische Bürgerschaft, who reside in the city of Bremen. The legislature is elected by the citizens of Bremen every four years.[3]

One of the two mayors (Bürgermeister) is elected President of the Senate (Präsident des Senats) and serves as head of the city and the state. The current President is Jens Böhrnsen.

Main sights

Roland

Many of the sights in Bremen are found in the Altstadt (Old Town), an oval area surrounded by the Weser River, on the southwest, and the Wallgraben, the former moats of the medieval city walls, on the northeast. The oldest part of the Altstadt is the southeast half, starting with the Marktplatz and ending at the Schnoor quarter.

The Marktplatz (Market square) is dominated by the opulent façade of the Town Hall. The building was erected between 1405 and 1410 in Gothic style, but the façade was built two centuries later (1609–12) in Renaissance style. Today, it hosts a restaurant in original decor with gigantic wine barrels, the Ratskeller in Bremen, and the wine lists boasts more than 600 — exclusively German — wines. It is also home of the twelve oldest wines in the world, stored in their original barrels in the Apostel chamber.

Two statues stand to the west side of the Town Hall: one is the statue (1404) of the city's protector, Roland, with his view against the Cathedral and bearing Durendart, the "sword of justice" and a shield decorated with an imperial eagle. The other near the entrance to the Ratskeller is Gerhard Marcks's bronze sculpture (1953) Die Stadtmusikanten (Town Musicians) which portrays the donkey, dog, cat and rooster of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale.

Other interesting buildings in the vicinity of the Marktplatz are the Schütting, a 16th-century Flemish-inspired guild hall, and the Stadtwaage, the former weigh house (built in 1588), with an ornate Renaissance façade. The façades and houses surrounding the market square were the first buildings in Bremen to be restored after World War II, by the citizens of Bremen themselves.

The Liebfrauenkirche (Our Lady's Church) is the oldest church of the town (11th century). Its crypt features several impressive murals from the 14th century.

Off the south side of the Markplatz, the 110 m (120 yd) Böttcherstraße was transformed in 1923–1931 by the coffee magnate Ludwig Roselius, who commissioned local artists to convert the narrow street (in medieval time, the street of the barrel makers) into an inspired mixture of Gothic and Art Nouveau. It was considered "entartete Kunst" (depraved art) by the Nazis. Today, the street is one of Bremen's most popular attractions.

At the end of Böttcherstraße, by the Weser bank, stands the Martinikirche (St Martin's Church), a Gothic brick church built in 1229, and rebuilt in 1960 after its destruction in World War II.[citation needed]

Tucked away between the Cathedral and the river is the Schnoor, a small, well-preserved area of crooked lanes, fishermen's and shipper's houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, now occupied by cafés, artisan shops and art galleries.

Schlachte, the medieval harbour of Bremen (the modern port is some kilometres downstream) and today a riverside boulevard with pubs and bars aligned on one side and the banks of Weser on the other.

Industries

The Bremen site is the second development centre after Hamburg. It forms part of the production network of Airbus Deutschland GmbH and this is where equipping of the wing units for all widebody Airbus aircraft and the manufacture of small sheet metal parts takes place. Structural assembly, including that of metal landing flaps, is another focal point. Within the framework of Airbus A380 production, assembly of the landing flaps (high lift systems) is carried out here. The pre-final assembly of the fuselage section (excluding the cockpit) of the A400M military transport aircraft takes place before delivery on to Spain.[6]

More than 3,100 persons are employed at Bremen, the second largest Airbus site in Germany. As part of the Centre of Excellence - Wing/Pylon, Bremen is responsible for the design and manufacture of high-lift systems for the wings of Airbus aircraft. The entire process chain for the high-lift elements is established here, including the project office, technology engineering, flight physics, system engineering, structure development, verification tests, structural assembly, wing equipping and ultimate delivery to the final assembly line. In addition, Bremen manufactures sheet metal parts like clips and thrust crests for all Airbus aircraft as part of the Centre of Excellence - Fuselage and Cabin.[7]

Beck & Co's headlining brew Beck's and St Pauli Girl beers are brewed in Bremen. In past centuries when Bremen's port was the "key to Europe", the city also had a large number of wine importers, but the number is down to a precious few. Apart from that there is another link between Bremen and wine: about 800 years ago, quality wines were produced here. The largest wine cellar in the world is located in Bremen (below the city's main square), which was once said to hold over 1 million bottles, but during WWII was raided by occupying forces.

Events

Every year since 1036, in the last two weeks of October, Bremen has hosted Freimarkt ("Free market"), one of the world's oldest and in Germany one of today's biggest continuously celebrated fairground festivals.

Bremen is host to one of the four big annual Techno parades, the Vision Parade.

Bremen is also host for the "Bremer 6 Tage Rennen" a bicycle race at the AWD-Dome.

Every year the city plays host to young musicians from across the world, playing in the International Youth Symphony Orchestra of Bremen (IYSOB).

Sports

It is home of the football team SV Werder Bremen which won the German Football Championship for the fourth time and the German Football Cup for the fifth time in 2004, making SV Werder Bremen just the fourth team in German football history to win the double; the club has most recently won the German Football Cup for the sixth time in 2009. It´s the second best footballteam in Germany. Only Bayern Munich has won more titles.

In December 1949, Bremen hosted the lecture cycle "Einblick in das, was ist" by the philosopher Martin Heidegger, in which Heidegger introduced his concept of a "fourfold" of earth and sky, gods and mortals. This was also Heidegger's first public speaking engagement following his removal from his Freiburg professorship by the Denazification authorities.